Minister: fresh water key to development
Bolgatanga, June 19, GNA - Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said the availability of freshwater is pivotal to water supply, sanitation, agriculture, industry, urban development, hydropower generation and inland fishing in the country.
He said: 'Besides its economic values, freshwater is important in addressing issues on health, poverty and hunger and has been rightly recognized in the formulation of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals'.
Dr Oteng-Adjei made the remarks in a speech read on his behalf, at this year's national desertification forum was held in Bolgatanga on Tuesday.
The Minister said currently Ghana was short of clean water, particularly in the northern parts of the country where about 40 per cent of people use unapproved sources of drinking water.
He said government had come out with interventions to ameliorate the problem, particularly in the northern parts of the country where through development partners, government has provided 10,000 boreholes and dugouts.
Dr Oteng-Adjei commended the Canadian Government and the World Bank for supporting the Community Based Participatory Watershed Development Planning in managing human activities and natural resources within watershed areas.
The forum sought to help stakeholders to appreciate the importance of maintaining and conserving freshwater resources in dry land areas in Ghana.
The event, organized by the Environmental Protection Agency under the auspices of Ghana Environmental Management Project (GEMP), was sponsored by the Canadian Government and attracted participants from the three northern regions - Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions.
The programme, organised on the theme: 'Freshwater Resources-Conservation for Quantity and Quality', was the forth since the implementation of the GEMP, which is aimed at reversing land degradation in the three northern regions.
The stakeholders included environmental experts, officials from the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, regional heads of institutions, traditional rulers and Civil Society representatives from the regions.
They were taken through topics including freshwater Resource Conservation in Northern Ghana in the face of Climatic Change, integrated watershed management through community participation for improved freshwater management and agriculture productivity in northern Ghana.
The participants were also educated on aquatic weeds infestation in freshwater bodies in northern Ghana: challenges and achievements on the eradication of this menace in the country's freshwater system.